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Faith leaders call on Scott, Cabinet to fix clemency system

The Rev. R.B. Holmes and other local faith leaders called Friday on Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to fix Florida’s clemency system following a landmark ruling by a federal court judge that it’s unconstitutional.

Faith leaders call on Scott, Cabinet to fix clemency system

The Rev. R.B. Holmes of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church and other local faith and community leaders called on Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to fix Florida's clemency system, which was found unconstitutional by a federal judge.
Jeff Burlew/Democrat

The Rev. R.B. Holmes and other local faith leaders called Friday on Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to fix Florida’s clemency system following a landmark ruling by a federal court judge that it’s unconstitutional.

Holmes, during a news conference at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, where he serves as pastor, said Scott and the Cabinet need to develop “timely and transformational” policies that will restore voting rights and civil rights to more than 1.5 million ex-felons in Florida.

“When a person has served his or her time in prison, paid their debt to society, paid restitution and off probation, it is the humane and right thing to ... restore their voting rights and civil rights,” Holmes said.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in his Feb. 1 ruling, said Florida’s clemency system "automatically disenfranchises" anyone who has been convicted of a felony and wants to vote. He wrote that partisan elected officials in Florida have “extraordinary authority” to grant or withhold voting rights “without any constraints, guidelines or standards.”

Earlier this week, Judge Walker gave Scott and the Board of Clemency a deadline of April 26 to come up with a new system. The NAACP and local, state and national religious leaders are planning to march to the Capitol on the same day as the deadline to push for rights restoration for former felons.

Melvin Blackshare, 63, served many years in prison before his release five years ago. He graduated from Bethel’s Ready4Work re-entry program last year and works as a custodian at a local charter school.

“Society wants us to reform, to rehabilitate and become a part of society,” he said. “But without our civil rights, we’re really not part of society. Transition programs, re-entry programs are good, but that’s just half of it. We need our rights.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.